Come Back from the Silence with Something to Say

One of the functions of art is to give people the words to know their own experience. There are always areas of vast silence in any culture, and part of an artist’s job is to go into those areas and come back from the silence with something to say. It’s one reason why we read poetry, because poets can give us the words we need. When we read good poetry, we often say, “Yeah, that’s it. That’s how I feel.”

URSULA K. LE GUIN